Study: 20% of electric vehicle owners couldn't charge their EVs at public charging stations



As the Biden administration pushes electric vehicles, thousands of EV owners report that they couldn't charge their electric cars at public charging stations, according to a new poll.

JD Power – a consumer research, data, and analytics firm – released its second annual U.S. Electric Vehicle Experience Public Charging Study on Wednesday. The survey interviewed 11,554 electric vehicle and plug-in hybrid vehicle owners from January through June 2022.

The study found that 20% of electric vehicle owners couldn't charge their EVs at public charging stations.

"The study finds that one out of every five respondents ended up not charging their vehicle during their visit," JD Power reported. "Of those who didn’t charge, 72% indicated that it was due to the station malfunctioning or being out of service."

Brent Gruber – executive director of global automotive at JD Power – said in a statement, "Not only is the availability of public charging still an obstacle, but EV owners continue to be faced with charging station equipment that is inoperable."

This week, the New York Times published an article titled: "A Frustrating Hassle Holding Electric Cars Back: Broken Chargers."

"Owners of battery-powered cars sometimes struggle to refuel on longer trips because public chargers don’t work or malfunction while cars are plugged in," the Times article read.

There are an estimated 41,000 public EV charging stations in the United States.

President Joe Biden authorized spending $7.5 billion to expand the EV charging infrastructure and hit a target of 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030.

Gruber points out that "just adding stations isn't the answer."

"The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) Formula Program […] will lead to sizable growth in the availability of EV charging stations, but just adding stations isn’t the answer," Gruber said. "Stations need to be added to areas where there are currently gaps in heavily traveled routes and in high-density areas for people who don’t have access to residential charging, but most importantly, designed with things for users to do while charging – regardless of the use case."

Despite supply chain issues, electric vehicle sales (including plug-in hybrids) spiked 41% in the first half of 2022 compared to the same timeframe last year, according to Urban Science. EVs represented 6.2% of all new U.S. car sales in the first six months of 2022, versus 3.6% in 2021.

The JD Power study did not reveal the exact reason as to why the remaining 28% of the EV owners couldn't charge their cars.

A possible reason why EV owners may not have charged their cars at a public charging station could be lengthy wait times.

In March, a woman posted a video of a long line of Tesla owners waiting to charge their vehicles in Louisiana.

The woman who took the video spoke to one of the EV owners, and he said that it normally takes 30 minutes to charge, but the demand was so high that it took over an hour to charge one car.

\u201cUS: A woman from Louisiana filmed a long line of Teslas waiting to charge their cars. It takes over an hour to charge each electric vehicle and the closest charging station is over 100 miles away.\u201d
— Apex World News (@Apex World News) 1647522798

In November 2019, a video of a massive line of Tesla automobiles in line went viral.

Tesla Energy Crisis www.youtube.com


Aussie police spark outrage after barging into church and stopping mass to enforce COVID mask mandate



Churchgoers found themselves stunned after Perth, Australia, police stopped mass to see whether parishioners were wearing masks during a recent church service.

What are the details?

The Daily Mail reported that a photo uploaded to social media showed at least one police officer standing near a dais alongside a priest at St. Bernadette's Catholic Church at Mount Hawthorn in Perth on Thursday night.

Authorities were said to have arrived at the church after receiving a tip that worshippers were not following mask mandates.

One churchgoer named Matthew said that everyone in the church was "pretty surprised" and that it was "troubling to see the liturgy that you love being stopped by police."

"It was pretty confronting," he recalled. "Everyone was sort of pretty stunned, I suppose. Then as soon as it started it was sort of over as he left."

The outlet reported that leaders believe the incident was a massive overreach.

In a statement on the interruption, authorities said that at least four people were found to be non-compliant with the region's mask mandate.

"Police responded to a report from a member of the public of people not wearing masks inside a church in Mount Hawthorn," the statement read. "Upon attendance, five people were spoken to by police and complied in wearing a mask. One person provided proof of an exemption."

CHURCH PAPERS CHECK: Patrick Horneman reported that in Perth, Australia a policeman entered a church "demanding correct mask behavior and checking exemptions."pic.twitter.com/zs0Wl5W2iQ
— Apex World News (@Apex World News) 1643980604

According to a Friday report from news.com.au, the church took to its social media pages to announce that masks are required inside the building.

“Please ensure that you are wearing a mask when you are attending mass/adoration,” the post said, according to the outlet. “You are not permitted to enter the church unless you are wearing a mask. If you have an exemption letter from your doctor, then please make certain that you carry this on you at all times. Heavy fines on the parish priest, our parish, and individuals will be incurred if you are caught without wearing your mask. Please co-operate with this request so as to avoid any complications.”

In a statement, Catholic Archbishop of Perth Timothy Costelloe said that the incident was "regrettable."

“It is highly regrettable that the police felt themselves obliged to intervene during a religious service in one of Perth’s Catholic parishes in order to enforce the mask-wearing mandate,” he said. “The celebration of the Eucharist is the central act of Catholic worship and is sacred to all Catholics. It is my hope that other ways can be found to deal with this delicate issue in future and my office stands ready to co-operate with the police in this manner.”

The statement added, “The office of the Archbishop will continue to provide all Catholic parishes and other agencies with very clear advice as to their obligations to act in compliance with the government‘s directives.”

The country's COVID-19 response has been strict to say the least.

According to National Review, such mitigation measures have included "prolonged lockdowns, closely monitored quarantine and isolation, state surveillance of citizens, testing checkpoints, and barring unvaccinated residents from certain activities.”